Cursed Heroine

Chapter 67: Taking full advantage of a reward

Today started as my usual routine. I got up and did some chores, cooked breakfast and cultivated my attributes until noon. After lunch, I would typically go for a quick dungeon dive and sell my finds at the auction house nearby. Then I would head back home, make dinner and go to bed.

Tonight was the night for my reward. I had prepared the ink immediately after Flora arrived and was more than ready. After our pre-bed routine, I had Scarlet lay down on the bed and started my work. She asked me what it was about and I told her about my attire menu’s tattoo function, which she had apparently never investigated. Since I had already planned it out, it only took a small amount of time to finish. Scarlet had been suspiciously quiet for the duration. She had, in fact, been using the time I had been drawing to prepare one for myself in the attire menu.

I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to what specific settings we both chose for each other, but I will say that the night was exceptionally fun as we both skirted the border of consciousness and lust driven instincts. I was first to wake up the next day...after noon, and my energy levels were lower than usual due to our excessive dual cultivation session. So I fed a bit on Scarlet without waking her. Then I proceeded with the second part of my plan.

As you may have guessed, there is an increasing number of new items coming out of the dungeon lately. Kat seems to be having a lot of fun with her newest toy. I had even bought some of the more interesting items for myself including: Loli-pops, a Charm Holding Bracelet, and some Cursed Training Bangles.

[Loli-pop]
{Consumable}
Effect: Lolickif(Causes the consumer to regress, body and mind, into a loli for up to 24hrs per whole item eaten. Body effect is stackable; Mind effect is non-stackable)

[Charm Holding Bracelet]
{Charm capacity: 1(upgrade: 10 full divine crystals-stage 2)}
Effect: Collect Charm, Deploy Charm

[Cursed Training Bangle]
{Cannot be removed by normal means}
Effect: Motion correction(sensual 1 | upgrade: 10 full divine crystals-stage 1)

[Cursed Training Bangle]
{Cannot be removed by normal means}
Effect: Motion correction(elegance 1 | upgrade: 10 full divine crystals-stage 1)

[Cursed Training Bangle]
{Cannot be removed by normal means}
Effect: Motion correction(calligraphy 1 | upgrade: 10 full divine crystals-stage 1)

The training bangles work much like my own attires’ movement correction. But instead of forcing the body to make motions in a certain way, they make motion that deviates from the ideal more strenuous. You have to change how you normally move your body in order to reduce the strain caused by the bangles. These things will only come off after the body becomes thoroughly conditioned to the motions. I attached the sensual and elegance ones to her ankles and the calligraphy one to her right wrist. While she was doing her shop paperwork, I noticed that her writing is atrocious.

I placed the charm holding bracelet on her left wrist, since she’s left handed. Collect charm lets her miniaturize whatever she is touching with her hand into a charm that will attach itself to the bracelet. Deploy does the opposite. Great for storing a weapon if you don’t have the inventory skill. I’ve heard that some adventurers will use it to store a small chest where they can then store more items in. Though, there is a limit to the size of the item collected. Seems to be about half a cubic meter of volume per charm.

With the advent of more aquatic items showing up in the dungeon, more and more people have started to explore the fiftieth floor and beyond. Apparently, there is a large room between the levels. A sort of safe zone that is dry where adventurers can take a rest. Some more small things that Kat has done is to add transfer crystals. They can transfer an effect from one item to another, and the item transferred to can even be a normally crafted item as long as the quality is high enough. Transfering effects to an item that it doesn’t match will of course still fail. You can’t put a weapon only effect onto a skirt. This only works for items that don’t yet have any effects or those with free slots. Depending on the item quality, slots will open up on a normal crafted item if a transfer is performed.

Yet another addition was the effect slot system. You can add an effect slot with the required stage of upgrade crystal. If an item already has two effects, you would need a stage three upgrade crystal to add another effect slot. The item quality is upgraded as well, probably because the number of effects requires it. Don’t know since I haven’t talked to Kat recently. She’s probably having too much fun to bother me. Not like that’s a bad thing. Totally didn’t just jinx myself there…

But I’ve digressed. To finish off my gifts to Scarlet I first gave her a kiss. When she responded to my prodding and opened up her mouth, I snuck in the loli-pop. Her body immediately started to shrink down and I continued to swirl the treat around in her mouth until she’d eaten it all up. She only woke up when it was all gone.

*Smack smack* ”Munya?”~Scarlet

Adorable!!! Little Scarlet is so cute!

She woke up groggy, wiping her eyes with her small hands. I helped her get ready, including dressing her in the sailor outfit I had especially prepared for today. The best part of the effect is that she will not notice anything abnormal. She however, was not impressed with my fashion sense and demanded to change clothes. I hadn’t prepared extras besides a cat onesie pajamas so she decided to sulk instead.

Pouty face! Oh, a pouty face!! My heart is screaming!!! Cute score for Little Scarlet: inf+1.

After swatting away my cheek pinching attack, she came up with a better idea.

“If I have to wear it, you do too!”~Scarlet

So, I ended up wearing a more adult version of the same outfit. My attire menu seems to have adjusted it a bit thankfully. Though, I can’t help but wonder if my shoe type is stuck with some sort of default setting. Even though the outfit goes better with flats, I somehow ended up with heels.

When breakfast was over, we started to walk through town on a kind of date while window shopping. We hadn’t even made it a block before I had to carry her. Those bangles were really tiring her out. Not that I’m complaining about being able to cuddle such a cutie in my arms.

We ended up in a clothing store just before lunch. She had remembered her dislike of her current clothes and the store caught her attention. The store looked like somewhere Princess Peach would shop. She chose a frilly pink dress to wear and I embellished it with some of Sofy’s accessories I still had in inventory. A small tiara and necklace, both with pink diamonds. I had ended up buying two outfits even though we really only took one. Scarlet had made my own attire match hers yet again and I wasn’t about to reveal my attire function to the shopkeeper. Good thing they didn’t sell accessories here or the price would have been ridiculous.

Instead of returning for lunch, we strolled around the food stalls while buying snacks. Our appearances gathered a lot of attention. I could hear whispers about us being some noble girls on an outing or perhaps a mother and daughter out for some fun. Some people would even bow to us, either unsure of the need or to participate in the merrymaking surrounding us. Scarlet was basking in the attention and puffed up her chest in response. I was feeling embarrassed enough for the both of us.

Some men would occasionally approach us or rather, me. I’d turn away those I could and knock out those who wouldn’t take a hint with magic. Usually I would kill such men outright, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to do so with onlookers. The guards didn’t even question my actions and even helped to clean up after me by dragging them away, hopefully to jail. No, it seems that they just toss them into the nearest alleyway. Two of the guards even decided to just follow us around, further legitimising our ‘princess parade’. It did help prevent further annoyances though.

Our last stop was at the auction house, where the manager who I’ve never even seen on previous visits, showed us around. I even got to see a special merchandise room, full of stuff that would apparently be sent to their parent auction house in the noble district. Scarlet found a high quality teddy bear among the items that I ended up buying for her.

[Drowsy Bear]
{Cannot be lost or stolen}
Effect: Divine Plush, Hibernation, Restoration, Pleasant Dream

Thankfully, non-combat items don’t cost too much even for something as great as this. Just the first effect was ridiculous. Imagine every word used to describe an ideal plushy and there you go. Soft, silky, squishy, fluffy, and more. It’s a heavenly item for bedtime. Hibernation lets the sleepers restore their body, mind, and spirit energy at three times the normal rate. They will also sleep deeper. Restoration will heal and clean the sleepers. It also keeps itself clean and repaired. Pleasant dream does exactly what you would think. Notice how I said sleepers earlier? Yea, its effects apply to everyone on the same bed.

The manager eventually sent us off after he blabber on and on about himself. Some third son of whoever noble house or whatever. He even gave me an invitation to the auction happening at the parent location tonight and said he would take it as a personal insult if I wasn’t there. Scarlet had fallen asleep while the man was yapping. I hailed a carriage to take us home, gave the two guards some crystals for their help and dismissed them before setting off.